Dalai Lama

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DALAI LAMA

The position of Dalai Lama, dating in its present form from the mid-seventeenth century, is a uniquely Tibetan institution, embodying the most important secular and religious presence in Tibet. Dalai is the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan name Rgya mtsho (pronounced "Gyatso"), which means "ocean," and bla ma (pronounced "lama"), a general Tibetan name for a respected religious teacher.

The name Dalai Lama was first used by Altan Khan, a Tumed Mongolian chieftain, for his teacher Bsod nams (Sonam) rgya mtsho (1543–1588). Bsod nams rgya mtsho and his followers then gave the name posthumously to Dge 'dun (Gendun) rgya mtsho (1476–1542) and Dge 'dun grub (Gendun Drup, 1391–1474), a student of the great scholar Tsong kha pa (1357–1419), saying that each later Dalai Lama was the reincarnation of the earlier. The followers of Tsong kha pa, later called the Dge lugs (Geluk) or Yellow Hat sect, probably saw the prestige that was gained through the system of reincarnation by older sects like the Karma Bka' brgyud (Kagyu), and borrowed the idea of reincarnation from them.

The fourth Dalai Lama was the grandson of Altan Khan. He was soon followed by the "Great Fifth" Dalai Lama, Ngag dbang (Ngawang) rgya mtsho (1617–1682). The Great Fifth Dalai Lama and his teacher, Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan (Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, 1567–1662), forged a coalition between the Dge lug, the Rnying ma (Nyingma) sect, parts of the Tibetan aristocracy, and the most powerful of the competing Mongolian factions to overcome the Karma Bka' brgyud and their Gtsang (Tsang) patrons of west central Tibet.

Fifth and sixth Dalai Lamas

The coalition created a new government called the Tusita Palace (Dga' ldan pho brang) based in Lhasa. The Dalai Lamas headed this government and lived, after its completion, in the colossal Potala palace started by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama in 1645 on the ruins of a palace built by the early Tibetan emperor Srong btsan sgam po (Songtsen Gampo). After his death, the Great Fifth's prime minister (some say natural son) Sangs rgyas (Sangyay) rgya mtsho finished the palace that came to symbolize and dominate Tibet in 1695. After the founding of the Dga' ldan pho brang government and the building of the Potala, the Dalai Lamas were not just head lamas of 'Bras spung (Drepung), the largest of the Dge lugs pa monasteries; they were heads of the government of Tibet as well.

For his help in spiritual and political matters, the fifth Dalai Lama gave the name Pan chen bla ma (Panchen Lama) to his teacher Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan, abbot of Bkra shis lhun po (Tashi Lunpo), the largest Dge lugs pa monastery in Gtsang. From this period comes the theory of the Dalai Lamas as emanations of Avalokite?vara, here conceived as the bodhisattva of compassion, and Panchen Lamas as emanations of Amit?bha. In tantric Buddhism there are five buddha families, each headed by a buddha. The head of Avalokite?vara's buddha family is Amit?bha, reflecting the esteem the Dalai Lama had for his teacher. The association of Dalai Lamas with Avalokite?vara reflects the great importance the bodhisattva Avalokite?vara has throughout Tibet and the ubiquitous presence of his mantra, O? ma?ipadme h??.

The sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706) was in many respects a tragic figure. Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho concealed the death of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama until completing the construction of the Potala in order to fore-stall the difficulties inherent in an interregnum period. Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho prevented the new incarnation, Tshe dbyangs (Tseyang) rgya mtsho, from contact with the outside world, and he set up an elaborate subterfuge to make the people think the fifth Dalai Lama was in a long retreat. As he grew up, Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho rebelled against the life of the celibate monk expected of a Dalai Lama, and he took to frequenting Lhasa taverns disguised as an ordinary layman. He had affairs with young women whom he met there, and expressed his longing to be with them obliquely in his poems, which are widely known and sung even today throughout Tibet.

Though beloved by ordinary Tibetans, Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho offended the Quoshot Mongol leader Lhasang Khan, who was shocked by what he saw as Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho's immoral behavior. Lhasang Khan killed the prime minister, captured Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho, and took him to the 'A mdo region of eastern Tibet, where he died at the age of twenty-four in 1706. Lhasang Khan set up his own relative as an alternative sixth Dalai Lama, a move that alienated Tibetans.

After the death of Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho, Tibetans opposed to Lhasang Khan's candidate turned to the Dzungars, a powerful western Mongolian tribe with deep devotion to the Dalai Lamas. This alarmed the Manchu-Chinese emperor Kangxi, who saw the Dzungars as a threat to Manchu interests. Manchu troops invaded Tibet and the seventh Dalai Lama, Skal bzang (Kelsang) rgya mtsho (1708–1757), was finally installed in Lhasa, after much negotiation, as Dalai Lama in 1720, with Manchu backing. Apart from replacing the post of prime minister with a council of ministers call the Bka' shag (Kashag), Skal bzang rgya mtsho devoted himself to Buddhist studies and gained some fame as a writer of religious books. The Bka' shag met in Lhasa and was answerable only to the Dalai Lamas or, when the Chinese presence was powerful, to the Chinese representatives (ambans).

For nearly 150 years from the death of Skal bzang rgya mtsho until the twelfth Dalai Lama 'Phrin las (Trinlay) rgya mtsho, effective political power was in the hands of regents appointed from among the powerful Dge lugs pa lamas, monks, and nobility. The eighth Dalai Lama, 'Jam dpal (Jampel) rgya mtsho (1758–1804), remained detached from political affairs. The ninth through the twelfth Dalai Lamas all died young: the ninth—Lung rtogs (Lungtok) rgya mtsho (1805–1815); the tenth—Tshul khrims (Tsultrim) rgya mtsho (1816–1837); the eleventh—Mkhas grub (Khedrub) rgya mtsho (born 1855 and died within a year of birth); and the twelfth—'Phrin las rgya mtsho (1856–1875).

The procedure for choosing Dalai Lamas evolved over time. Dreams of respected religious figures and visions of oracles have always been important. Since the time of the third Dalai Lama, Bsod nams rgya mtsho, in the sixteenth century, visions appearing on the surface of a sacred lake near Chos 'khas rgyal (Chökhar Gyal) in south central Tibet have been considered significant. In the case of the seventh Dalai Lama, lines from Tshe dbyangs rgya mtsho's poem—"I will not fly far. I will come back from Li thang"—were considered an important clue by those charged with locating the place of rebirth. Such seemingly innocuous statements, or in some cases actual letters detailing a birthplace, remain an important part of the selection process, as does the ability of the child candidate to differentiate items belonging to the earlier Dalai Lama when they are placed alongside similar items.

The influence of China on the selection of Dalai Lamas stems from the turbulent years after the death of the sixth Dalai Lama and the Manchu intervention in the early eighteenth century. The Manchu general Fu Kang'an delivered a golden urn from the Manchu emperor to be used for the selections of high lamas. The Manchu representatives (ambans), who remained in Tibet after the Chinese army returned to Tibet, witnessed the procedure of choosing a name from the golden urn. From this period also comes the schism between the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, as the Manchus exploited the traditional rivalry between central Tibet and western Gtsang to counterbalance the power of the Dge lugs pa sect. The Manchus backed the Gtsangbased Panchen Lamas strongly.

Thirteenth and fourteenth Dalai Lamas

The thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thub bstan (Tubten) rgya mtsho (1876–1933), who, like the fifth, is called the "Great," overcame entrenched Dge lugs pa monastic power and reasserted the authority of the Dalai Lama as a political institution. After surviving an attempted assassination, Thub bstan rgya mtsho introduced reforms, first in the large Dge lugs pa monasteries and then in the government ministries led by members of the Bka' shag. According to Melvyn Goldstein in A History of Modern Tibet (1989), the thirteenth Dalai Lama attempted two reforms of Tibetan society in particular that would have better prepared Tibet for the difficulties of the modern world: modernization of the army and introduction of a democratically elected assembly. He failed in both reform efforts because of entrenched conservatism and vested interests.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama skillfully governed Tibet during the time of the "Great Game," the rivalry for control of the Central Asian regions that lay between the empires of czarist Russia and British India. Fearful of Russian influence, the viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, sent out an army under Colonel Francis Edward Younghusband that invaded Tibet in 1904. The Dalai Lama fled to Mongolia and then to China. When the Chinese invaded Tibet five years later the Dalai Lama in turn fled to British India, making his way to Darjeeling. He was hosted there by Sir Charles Bell, a British political officer, whose book A Portrait of the Dalai Lama: The Life and Times of the Great Thirteenth (1946) introduced the Dalai Lama to the English-speaking world.

Before his death in 1933 the Great Thirteenth Dalai Lama wrote a letter, now viewed as his political testament, in which he foresaw great change and suffering for the Tibetan people if they did not adapt quickly to the modern world. Unfortunately the leaders of Tibet during the regency period were unable to rise to this difficult task, and the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho (Tenzin Gyatso), was destined to perform the nearly impossible task of leading a people clinging to a country disintegrating before their eyes into an uncertain future.

Born Hla mo don grub (Lhamo Dhundup) to an ordinary farming family in 1935, the fourteenth Dalai Lama was given the name Bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho when he became a monk. Bstan 'dzin means "holder of the Buddha's doctrine." Out of respect, Tibetans call him Sku 'dun (pronounced "Kundun"), which means literally "the presence before us." The regent, Rva streng (Reting) rin po che, guided a search party to the northeastern region of Tibet after a sign given after death by the thirteenth Dalai Lama, whose body had miraculously turned to face in that direction. A house like the future fourteenth Dalai Lama's had also appeared on the surface of the sacred lake. When special marks were observed on Hla mo don grub's body and he was able to distinguish items belonging to the thirteenth Dalai Lama from among similar items, Rva streng rin po che declared him the reincarnation. After payment of a large ransom to the local Chinese warlord, Rva streng had the young boy brought to Lhasa, where he was enthroned in 1940 at the age of five.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama divided his early years between the Potala and the Nor bu gling kha summer palace, studying Buddhism under the supervision of learned Dge lugs pa monks. This changed abruptly in 1950 when, at the age of fifteen, a political crisis forced the Tibetan government to ask him to assume both political and spiritual authority.

In China, decades of civil war and instability ended with the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. Mao immediately declared Tibet an integral part of the Chinese motherland and China's Red Army marched in, easily defeating the badly equipped Tibetans in 1950 at Chamdo, on the traditional border between central and eastern Tibet. In desperation, Tibet's political leaders invested the young Dalai Lama with full political authority. In 1951 China forced a totally defeated Tibet to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement in which it was declared that Tibet had always been a part of China.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama finished his traditional studies in 1959. Soon after, when the Chinese army suppressed a Tibetan uprising in Lhasa protesting tightening Chinese control, the Dalai Lama fled as a refugee to India. He was eventually followed by about 100,000 of his people.

In India, as Thubten Samphel says in The Dalai Lamas of Tibet (2000), "the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has managed to transform a medieval Central Asian institution into a positive force recognized globally" (p. 68). He reorganized the Tibetan government in exile along more democratic lines and spearheaded attempts to introduce modern education to Tibetan children. In his

campaign against the Chinese presence in Tibet, the fourteenth Dalai Lama has preached accommodation and nonviolence. In 1987, in an address to the U.S. Congress, he unveiled a five-point peace plan that envisions Tibet as a neutral zone of peace. The next year, in Strasbourg, France, he announced his willingness to accept that Tibet is a part of China if there were a strong devolution of power that would allow Tibet to be self-governing and to retain its distinctive identity. For these efforts he received the Nobel Prize for peace in 1989.

The religious beliefs of the fourteenth Dalai Lama are summed up in a verse of the eighth-century Indian saint ??ntideva that he often quotes: "As long as space endures, as long as suffering remains, may I too remain, to dispel the misery of the world." The fourteenth Dalai Lama travels widely, giving explanations of Buddhist teaching and exchanging ideas with scientists and leaders of other faiths.

See also:Communism and Buddhism; Tibet